Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Mahalo Chops Headcount, Says Report

Santa Monica-based Mahalo, the online human-curated news and search site headed by Jason Calacanis, has cut 10 percent of its staff, according to reports. According to a report by CenterNetworks, the changes were a reaction to the search algorithm and quality changes made by Google last week. Google said last week that it had made significant changes to its algorithm to downgrade what it considered low-quality pages, which was expected to hit "content farms". Citing an email sent to Mahalo's "Guides", who develop content for Mahalo, the report said that, so far, the Google changes have led to a "significant dip" in traffic and revenues. The move also includes a suspension of Mahalo's Guides program, which solicited content from freelancers. It appears that Google's changes have hit Mahalo much worse than neighboring Santa Monica content publisher Demand Media, which said last week the change did not have a "material impact" on its Content and Media business.

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